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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Bridget's LiveJournal:
| Sunday, July 12th, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 5:27 pm | [Cambridge] What's On Aha - this (Cambridge Online) is the website I have been hoping existed, collecting links for lots of arts/theatre/cinema venues and a list of special events. The Shakespeare Festival fell off my radar last year, and I'd like to get to the Jesus Green Comedy Week :-) Also, while I'm listing useful local websites which I forget exist, there's Local Secrets which has news, restaurant reviews, and offers. Any favourite local sites I'm missing? | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 8:56 am | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Saturday, June 20th, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 7:45 pm | Losing Track Literally! The small ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} woolymonkeys have been building a Lego train set for me from parts from my Dad's old set. Today they came round bearing trains and engines, stationhouses, and all manner of odd vehicles. There were some wheeled blocks left over so we made a Segway :-) All I needed was the box of track, which we'd left here, to set it running.And I can't find it anywhere - we even went up in the loft. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 7:12 pm | Normal service Go to work, work, come home from work, work. Occasionally quip on the Internet. Went to zoo on Saturday! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, May 28th, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 8:32 am | Sending stuff in the mail Poll #1406989 Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None I like... postcards! comics! both! neither! Remind me of your address, if you'd like a postcard... | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Saturday, May 9th, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1:25 pm | Catering for Book Group We did Watchmen at Book Group last night. I baked. Rorschach cookies  ( and baked, and... ) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 11:35 am | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Friday, May 8th, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 12:00 pm | Clunk They're unobtrusively polite at the chiropractor practice. Chap looked at the gown lying folded on the chair and said "Wait, let me fetch you a better one." Which was nice! I suspect this was an alternative to "Let me fetch you a bigger one," which, while not a value judgement in this case, would add one more drip to the stalagmite of "You don't fit! You don't fit this gown, the normal sized gown for normal sized people, you're not normal, you don't fit in!" He did adjustments, though I was already much improved from misthawk's massage, and I hope to get out for actual walks on the weekend :-) This afternoon though, I shall lie on the sofa with ouches while people from work say "Oh plz do 4 hours work for me today kthxbye" I need a quieter day than that :-(Then I have Plans for making foodstuffs :-) There will be pictures, if it comes out okay. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Friday, May 1st, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 4:01 pm | A model backbone We (docs, chiros, massage etc) do seem to be coming up with a fairly consistent model for what goes on. Joint in lower back are unstable. (Root cause, but rather vague) When joints are disturbed or damaged, they get painful and inflamed while they heal. (This hurts. I take ibuprofen.) While joints are painful, buttocks helpfully seize up to protect the area. (Chiro says "My god, your buttocks are tight." Ten days earlier, I'd had a jolly good massage to sort them out.) This also maybe crushes the joints a bit, reducing their range of motion. (Hurts more, sharp pains, can't walk) Then the other bits of the spine start to get hypermobile to compensate for the stiff bits, and they're more likely to hurt... Treatment plan: rest, stretch, core strengthening, remain active. (Core is already strong. "Lie on your back, and slowly raise both legs together - oh, I didn't think you'd be able to do that!") Best way to avoid it happening in the future: Don't do things that put my back out. Take walk-around breaks from the computer every 15 minutes. Line that made me cry: "That just leaves lifestyle changes, and as this has been getting worse since you started that job ..." I think I'll keep quiet now on the subject of Back. I know I'm not the only person here with problems, and they're not the worst by any means. I thought I'd say a bit though, in case people were thinking "I've not seen Bridget around much, she must be off doing fun stuff somewhere" when really I'm not. I should be more proactive about inviting people over though, if I'm not going to get out much. EDIT: I shall make this a FAQ. Do you have any questions? This has been happening on and off for 15 years. Yes, I have tried different mattresses. Firm is good, but the condition remains. Is it my discs? We think not. X-rays show no disc problems, the MRI showed a bit of wear and tear in one. It's certainly not a slipped disc. Do you get sciatica? No - hurrah! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 3:22 pm | April media Where did the month go? I have read 3 books: * Scepticism, Inc., Bo Fowler: Satire on religion, told through the viewpoint of a self-aware shopping trolley. Fun, but I wuold have appreciated it a lot more in my early twenties. * Brasyl, Ian McDonald: Three linked story threads, set in Brazil decades or centuries apart, slowly the links between them come out. Beautifully written, lush wordage. Characters with complicated motives. Shiny futurism and historical Jesuits. VG. * The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut: I forget how funny he is, though the 1950s culture is receding further and further from me into startling anachronism. More satire on religion. And what free will does a man have, if he's born lucky and acquainted with a man who has seen his future? I want the next book I read to be a Vonnegut. and only seen one film, and that on DVD rather than the cinema! * Stage Beauty: Edward Kynaston, a male-playing-female actor in the Restoration era, called a great beauty by Pepys. But these are times of change. An interesting look at the theatre of the time, with a remarkably saucy Nell Gwyn and Rupert Everett does a good turn as King Charles. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1:41 pm | Tech Support plz I have a shiny new monitor. It works with my home PC and my work laptop, is it possible to connect it to both of them at once, to avoid crawling under the desk to fiddle with the cable? In a perfect world there would also be some way to switch between PC/laptop, but I'm resigned to the option of only having one device at a time switched on. *peers at computer and monitor* *peers at Wikipedia* The monitor has a VGA socket and a male DVI-D (dual link)socket; The PC has a VGA socket and a female DVI socket; The laptop only has a VGA socket. Currently I keep one end of a VGA cable attached to the monitor, and switch the other end between PC and laptop. Any suggestions? Maplins said I could only split it if they were both VGA. Thank you! EDIT: I appear to have some solutions, many thanks :-) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday, April 19th, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 6:37 pm | TAFF 2009 Westbound Race Result Thank you to all who have supported, nominated, voted, or stood in this TAFF race. This has been a fine race, with 175 votes cast. Steve Green ( stevegreen) won on the first round with an absolute majority of the first-place preference votes cast and is declared the winner. Steve will travel to Anticipation, the Worldcon in Montréal, in August, and is planning the rest of his itinerary. Congratulations Steve, and commiserations Tom. Total of first place votes
NB 5 Rest of World voters have been rolled up into the North America column to conceal their votes. This does not affect the result. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Saturday, April 18th, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 8:48 am | What I Did On My Holidays, in 1991 I didn't write a journal on my trip to the US in 1991; a few postcards that will have gone the way of ephemera, a couple of dozen photographs, and some memories is what I have left. Until I found an old notebook with a painstaking listing of everything I spent :-) That brought back a few more memories. * Melbourne Youth Hostel, Denver CO, $8.64/night. It was a Sunday evening, Denver appeared to be closed. * Museum of Holography ($2.50) which I had entirely forgotten about. * "piece of cardboard ($3)" - I suspect this was something to do with Rocky Horror, which I note I bought tickets for that night. * Museum of Science and Industry ($5) where I bought Space Fries ($1.62). It was over 100° in Chicago, the Museum had air conditioning so I stayed all day. Two days later I had "horrid pizza ($13)" * for posterity (and accounting) I dutifully noted my purchase of "avocado (99¢)" and "lemon drink ($1)". That was a nice avocado. I seem to have developed a bit of a Real Lemonade habit out there, British lemonade is more like 7Up. * Ah, New Orleans, where I had a strawberry daquiri ($4) and a flying grasshopper ($5). I remembered to tip ($1). It was a baking hot day, I sat by the river and drank cocktails, then went to a park and read a book. Gabriel, by Lisa Tuttle ($2.99), which IIRC was set there. Only 80¢ to ride the streetcar! * Sat July 20: juice (60¢), more juice ($1.94), food ($5.42), food ($1.30), onion (10¢). because you have to count everything. I think the juice craziness was my first delicious exposure to V8. NY - Niagara Falls - Chicago - Venice Beach CA - Denver - Houston - New Orleans - Orlando - Miami Beach but I never did get down into Baja California for the solar eclipse. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Friday, April 17th, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:46 pm | Mending I left the house today! Just to go to the post box, and that was enough to make it clear something is still wrong with the joints. I've done plenty of physio-type stretches/exercises, and things are starting to come together, but not enough for a full day sitting at a keyboard. A visit from K and M included some pleasant serendipity: their shopping trip for black chiffon had been unsuccessful, but I had in my box of things I'm not going to wear any more but might be useful to someone - a black chiffon thing which when unpicked was just the right length. And they took away some bananas! Tomorrow includes waiting for new monitor, lot of resting and exercising (poss in front of DVDs), cooking Proper Dinner, and that's about it. Still trying to square work, social life, and doing what I can to improve/manage the back. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, April 16th, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 4:55 pm | Yellow-faced I was sure I ordered six bananas, not six bunches of eight bananas. But I am wrong, and Sainsbury's is right, and I don't think I''ve had 48 bananas before. What shall I do with them? Banana flambee party? EDIT: I had 52 bananas, I'd forgotten about the four already in the fruit bowl. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 9:23 pm | TAFF Racing The deadline for the TAFF race is almost upon us - active fans can vote to send stevegreen or fivemack to Anticipation, the Worldcon in Canada. A mere £2 to vote, PayPal enabled for your convenience. People who have no idea what TAFF is can support it by paying a donation Here is the ballot form, with full instructions. Do it by 8am GMT on Sunday 19 April! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday, April 12th, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 5:03 pm | This is the weekend where I learnt predictive texting ... mainly because it started out of nowhere and I can't figure out how to turn it off. I can't deny it's much quicker than ordinary texting, but in all my wordplay I've never come across anything like the way agonies turn into binary and become chocolate as you type, the earlier characters changing to reflect new/now forbidden possibilities imposed by the later. There must be something in this... | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, April 9th, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 4:06 pm | Imminent loss of contact? My Eee isn't recognising my home wifi any more. I hope it will be okay with hotel wifi, or it's just turned into a small word processor :-( tamaranth has led this fossil by the hand along the path of Getting Email On One's Phone though, and it just about limps by while throwing lots of Out Of Memory errors.Well, for the next few days I will mostly be sitting in the gopher hole. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 12:47 pm | Oxfam Walk It's that time again - or it will be, in 6 weeks. I'm currently fairly fit (as Bridgets go), and the 16-mile route looks challenging but not crippling. Expect touting for sponsorship soon! Anyone else interested? Company is always nice :-) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 12:11 pm | Possible longshot offer of free stuff Institute of Physics journals! Now that it appears my glorious career does not lie in the area of physics modelling and amusing mathematics, is anyone interested in: Nonlinearity, vol 10, 1-6, 1997 Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, vol 9, 1-6, 2001 ? Otherwise I'll try Freecycle (or keep them in a box in case one day I wake up and find myself a brilliant scientist with a contribution to make in my copious spare time) They're fairly heavy, and I'm in Cambridge. | ||||||||||||||||||||
19 (67.9%)